Leading military supporter of Sumatran autonomy dies

Leading military supporter of Sumatran autonomy dies

PADANG, West Sumatra (JP): A renowned military supporter of
autonomy for Sumatra, Col. (ret.) Ahmad Husein, died in Jakarta
on Saturday at the age of 73.

His body arrived in Padang at noon on Saturday and was buried
with full military honors at Kuranji Heroes' Cemetery later in
the same day.

Ahmad, a former leader of the Banteng Council which supported
autonomy for Sumatra, had been receiving treatment for an illness
at Gatot Subroto military hospital in Jakarta for three weeks.

Among those who attended the funeral were Minister of Manpower
Fahmi Idris, Harun Zein, Maj. Gen. Ismed Yuzairi, Ahmad's son-in-
law, and the Governor of West Sumatra Muchlis Ibrahim.

Ahmad was born in Kuranji, Padang, on April 1, 1925. He fought
in guerrilla campaigns against the Dutch colonial forces and
entered the military during the Japanese occupation of 1942-1945.
In 1946 he took over command of the Kuranji Harimau (Tiger)
Battalion and was dubbed Harimau Kuranji (tiger of Kuranji) on
account of the battalion's famed resistance against the Dutch.

Dissatisfaction with the central government led Ahmad and a
number of other officers and civilians to proclaim the PRRI --
the Revolutionary Government of the Republic of Indonesia.

Ahmad went on to lead the Banteng Council in central Sumatra,
which was set up in the region in November 1956, followed by
establishment of similar councils in other areas of the island.

A younger brother of the deceased, Syofyan Kahar, said Ahmad
was not the leader of a separatist movement.

"The deceased fought only for autonomy, just like the demands
being raised in the current reform era," Syofyan said.

Other former activists also said the movement was set up to
fight for autonomy rather than a separate state, claims
corroborated in a study conducted by American political scientist
Barbara Harvey, whose work is published as PRRI/Permesta: A Half-
Hearted Rebellion.

Another retired officer linked to the PRRI movement, Lt. Col.
(ret.) Syoeib, said Ahmad's death was a loss to efforts to
rewrite the history of the movement, which was crushed around
1961. The perception that the movement had separatist intentions
stigmatized those associated with it, Syoeib said.

"We, as former members of PRRI, are trying to explain to the
public what really happened," he said when addressing the
funeral. (28/anr)